Saturday, August 19, 2006

Ford to halt production at 10 plantsDETROIT - Ford Motor Co. said Friday it would temporarily halt production at 10 assembly plants between now and the end of the year, blaming high gas prices for pushing many consumers away from its pickups and SUVs and toward higher-mileage models... Don't even bother reading the entire article.

Hmmm, if gas prices are to blame for pushing consumers away from Ford's gas-guzzling pickups and SUVs, then shouldn't these consumers be buying Ford's fuel-efficient models instead? My bad... Maybe Ford just didn't receive the same information about unrenewable resources the rest of us have hearing about for decades. Yes, this must be why they were incapable of planning for the imminent rise in gas prices.

God-damn gas prices! Who could have seen that coming?

Are we supposed to feel bad for Ford? Specifically, are we supposed to feel bad for the top brass at Ford, who make their millions even while the company fails?

No!

The "suits" at Ford are failing horribly. Their job is simply to operate a profitable company by making profitable decisions, but they don't do it. And because they don't do their jobs right, Ford is losing money. It seems pretty reasonable to me that we could expect incompetence to go unrewarded and unpaid. Right? That's what would happen to me if I owned a pizzeria that wasn't making money. But the suits at Ford still make millions every year while the real workers, who actually do their jobs well, get shafted.

So should we feel sorry for the workers, who give their heart and soul to a company that doesn't appreciate such devotion? Should we feel sorry for me because I've been similarly unappreciated on the job? Should we feel sorry for the small investors who keep pumping their money into companies that don't function?

No!

We should have enough human decency to care about them (and me), and we should hope they'll be able to find new ways to support themselves and their families. But we should also realize that they agreed to work for a company operated by greedy, incompetent thieves who have the power to continue such operations. And we should realize that the small investors willingly put their money blindly into a company that doesn't know how to use it, setting themselves up to be ripped off.

It should bother us that the regular, everyday people of the world (not just Americans) have to live like this. But feeling sorry for them is not going to help anything. Feeling sorry for me is not going to help anything.

Here are the solutions:

Everyday Workers - Stop working for people and corporations that rip you off. You are worth more than you've ever been paid. These corporations need you a lot more than you need them, but society has tricked most of us into believing the opposite. Consequently, we feed their greed by treating them like we need them more than they need us. Don't do it anymore. Instead make a low-budget movie or try to open your own small business. I know that's not easy to do; I'm proof of how hard it can be. But I'm putting my heart and soul into it because I know it's the only real chance I have to get something real out of this life.

Small Investors - Stop giving your money to large corporations that rip you off. They don't invest your money; they take your money. Instead, think logically about how you might capitalize on one of the many great ideas brewing in the minds of people like me. Great ideas are worth a lot of money. The people with the greatest and most valuable ideas are not easy to find, and they don't wear suits. Investing wisely requires some heavy-duty thinking and analyzing (unless you already have millions of dollars). It requires unconventional thinking.

But don't take my word for it. Invest your money however you want to invest it. If you like paying for some greedy criminal's mansion, invest in Ford or Wal-Mart. But if you want to make some money and help make a positive impact, invest in someone like me.